The Laughing Swordsman

The violent surges of wind continued to pick up, making a miniature tornado that circulated around Apollo. As of now, the excess energy began to overflow from both his mouth and eyes. Now, they had both become a solid white that began to glow.

The smile on his face and widened eyes made even more light shine through, making the rest of his face look dark.

Currently, Apollo wasn't truly aware of what was happening. All he could feel was that his body was beginning to change tremendously, as though remolded from the base. Yet, at the same time, it also seemed like his body wasn't changing.

Lightning began to gather around Apollo, snaking around the snowy tornado that had formed around him. It was as though a storm was coming.

The excess energy that was in Apollo's body had drained almost immediately, while his body continued to emit excessive waves of heat. It came to the point that the snow a few meters away began melting into water.

After a few minutes passed, he could feel... something flow through his body. It felt cool, especially since his body was overheating tremendously. As it continued to move throughout his body, he could tell that he was gaining some sort of ability.

It felt like he was gaining an extra limb, similar to how his lightning ability worked.

Apollo could feel his entire body feel considerably lighter. And eventually, a soft feeling covered his entire body. The evolution had been completed.

However, before he could think about it any further, a massive lighting bolt came down from the air, striking Apollo. This lightning bolt was disproportionately large, making even Yzan gasp in surprise.

The floor underneath Apollo was razed, while snow and water were scattered up high into the air from his position, making Vicar block it with his greatsword.

As all of the snow cleared, it gradually revealed Apollo, who was staring up at the sky, as though wondering what was up there in those clouds.

And at that moment, a voice rang out inside his head.

"Mm... W-What the heck? What is happening?"

"...I'm going to fight with the dragon."

Apollo spoke without much concern, not caring about the confusion it probably caused Vicar and Yzan. The voice in his head seemed a little perplexed.

"What? Why are you in a fight with this dragon? Does it have something valuable?"

"Um, I just wanted to fight it. I don't think that there are any valuables."

The voice in his head was speechless.

Yzan tilted its head to the side.

"...What are you doing?"

Vicar looked towards Apollo with a questioning look.

"Who are you talking to?"

Apollo scratched the side of his head.

"Ah, there's this other person in my head that is sometimes awake and we can talk."

Vicar raised both eyebrows.

"That sounds quite interesting. You will always have someone to talk to that way."

Apollo pouted slightly.

"I don't really like him though."

"What?"

The voice seemed displeased. Apollo shook his head.

"Anyway, I'm going over to fight the dragon."

Yzan's eyelid twitched.

"My name is Yzan..."

Apollo smiled.

"And mine is Apollo!"

This time, he walked forwards with relative ease. The pressure still had quite the effect on him, but it was nothing compared to before. He began to gather lighting... and wind.

The snow around him began rotating around him in a circle, while a large amount of lightning gathered among it.

Yzan raised both eyebrows.

"You completed an entire breakthrough... in a matter of moments?"

Apollo didn't respond.

Instead, he continued to charge forth. His eyes and smile began to glow with an incredibly bright white. The voice in his head seemed confused.

"What the heck happened while I was asleep? Why are you- Woah!"

Suddenly, a thundering bang resounded.

Apollo shot off of the ground explosively, leaving remnant trails of lightning. Wild gales of wind caused both his clothes and hair to flap around violently, almost like he was skydiving.

The voice in his head was speechless for a moment, but eventually, let out a sigh.

"I guess I'll help then."

Lighting began gathering in the air around him. However, along with it, visible winds began to form around them, coalescing to become a part of them.

At first, Yzan was watching without much interest. However, his eyes widened ever so slightly when he saw the sight in front of him.

The voice in Apollo's head was also a little surprised.

"What the- when did you get this wind thing?"

Apollo tried to respond, but the only thing he could do was laugh. And as such...

"HAHAHA HAHAHAHA."

That was the response he gave.

Propelled by both the winds and lightning, he began shooting towards Yzan. As he got closer, the pressure also got stronger. However, Apollo was still able to force his way through.

The lighting around him continued to gather and combine with the winds, quickly amassing to become something massive.

In a matter of moments, the wind and lightning burgeoned with one another, seemingly on the verge of bursting.

After a few moments, Yzan ended up opening his mouth, letting a black ball condense in front of his jaws. He decided to take this a little seriously.

As for Apollo, his figure had disappeared entirely within the winds and lightning. They had combined together to become a massive dragon head, several times larger than even Yzan's.

It's main body consisted of wind, but lighting ran through all of it. The eyes glowed brightly with bright blue lightning, as did the interior of the dragon's mouth.

In mere moments, Apollo had already gotten close.

Yzan suddenly let loose with the black mass, causing massive waves of black energy to shoot out from his mouth.

The dragon that Apollo had formed began to distort. Even the light coming from its eyes began to dull.

However, despite being wrapped up in black energy, the dragon head continued to shoot through.

Like a fire doing its best to light up the dark night.